FHTWO: I saw a post recently where the TV Channel selector knob was on display with the statement “Like if you remember when a TV had only 13 channels.” I had to laugh, first because there were only twelve channels on the dial displayed even though it went to 13 there was no channel 1, and remembering when my brother was born, I was 4, my Dad bought us a blond-maple TV (actually just a wooden box) that stood on a wooden blond-maple stand and it had the same knob. But in Shreveport at that time we had three networks, 3 channels, 3, 6, and 12. I am not sure when UHF channels were available as well as Public Broadcasting channel 13.

Even with only 3 channels to choose from there was always the possibility of a fight about which one to watch. The biggest revolutionary idea in TV watching to occur since then is not the 400 channel package you can get but the DVR. Now we can record anything we want to watch and watch it when we want and fast forward through the commercials.
They always talk about our parents generation and all that they saw come about. And thank God my parents are still seeing the changes. Though I believe the Baby Boomers have seen some of the biggest changes. And things are still changing rapidly, not all for the good.

I read an article to day about 10 gadgets that should be obsolete by now ITHO.

The very first one ( vinyl records ) reminded me of becoming a teen and my first purchase was a Beatles album. There is actually a resurgence of reissuing vinyl record sets for your favorite 60’s band, like the Beatles or George Harrison, or Paul McCartney.

Most suggestions required that you use your smartphone for everything which means you have to have (GPS device) activated, store your files in the cloud (thumb drives, optical discs, PDAs), and quit carrying your (compact digital camera.) They admit that Grandma may look fuzzy using your phone camera as the quality is not as good, but it is more convenient, it is better to only carry your phone.

I personally love the pictures I get with my compact digital camera and carry it when I know I will be taking pictures though everyone has a phone.

GPS tracking means they will always know where you are. Storage on the cloud has been proven to be unsafe. Vinyl records in some cases take me right back to the time I first heard the music and that trip is wonderful. And Grandma never appeared to be fuzzy, especially with my digital camera.

Don’t rush it. Very few things go obsolete until people no longer want them.

FHTWO: When I was growing up, LSU was the team to root for in Shreveport. We didn’t have a pro football team until I was 17 and we didn’t have the Dallas Cowboys to root for until 1960 when I was 10. My Dad and his three brothers were big LSU fans. They even went to the Cotton Bowl one year to watch them play Arkansas.

We had relatives in southern Louisiana and on one trip we stopped at the LSU campus and saw the kitty cat and the LSU track.

In the early days (first 50 years) LSU’s mascot was a paper-mache tiger (for 50 years). One of LSU’s graduates donated a small, black South American cat; it was probably much like a bobcat or a jaguar with a short tail. LSU fans called him “Little eat em Up”. LSU lost all of its conference games that year, so they fired the mascot.

Anyway, I was around 9 or 10 and seeing the track decided I would run around it. A quarter of a mile. I do not know what possessed that little stupid kid. I did not run track. I was genetically slow. I did not want to stop until I finished because my parents and brother and sister were patiently waiting for super sloth to complete the oval, probably wondering where the nearest phone was just in case to call for an ambulance.

Inside I was proud I finished and outside I was so embarrassed. I felt like Little Eat em up. I was sure I was going to be fired as an under performing child.

FHTWO: My wife is always losing silverware, medications, tweezers etc. and loses them in her recliner. Imagine our surprise lifting up her chair and seeing a cable box remote control, three forks, various pills and a small Malaysian airliner flying in circles.

FHTWO: OK it is not enough to scare people with your robot voice, now you have to tell them that you believe a cosmic death bubble, caused by changes to the field that the infamous “god particle” is associated with, could wipe out the known universe. To add fuel to the fire, you wrote in the preface to your new book that it could happen at any time, with no prior warning.

Who did this, well Stephen Hawking did. Now he has had to eat some of his black hole theories recently and back tracked, which is easy to do in that electric cart thingy.

BTW, can’t he afford a custom voice for his computer? Maybe hire James Earl Jones to record all the words he uses.

Interestingly, according to theoretical physicistJoseph Lykken, we are currently sitting comfortably on the edge between a stable and an unstable universe. “We’re sort of right on the edge where the universe can last for a long time, but eventually it should go ‘boom.’ There’s no principle that we know of that would put us right on the edge,” he said in a recent lecture.

“Everything Hawking says is true: the Higgs potential is what governs what vacuum state we’re in, and we can transition,”said Mack in her article on the topic. “But it’s really unlikely that would happen. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to defend the poor little Higgs boson—it’s not out to hurt us.”

So what is the motivation for trying to scare you? I find it interesting that these smart men are talking about “bubbles” and “the universe going boom.”

FHTWO: My cousin asked for help on facebook reducing a photo to 400 pixels in width. Now I know many ways to do that with HTML; <img width=””, similar setting in CSS, many image software like PhotoShop and CorelPaint, etc. will allow you tore-size the photo.

So I thought when someone is in need, why not make a funny. So I said to reduce a photo to 400 pixels wide, first make it 800 pixels wide and then cut it in half.

When someone is asking for help, maybe not a good time. So for my cousin, here is a quick and easy way to re-size your photo and you can even do other edits at this site.

I grew up in Shreveport-Bossier Louisiana. I was proud of this fact growing up. The Sportsman’s paradise. New Orleans with Mardis Gras was fairly close. Spicy food. Cajuns. My Dad’s mom was 100% Cajun. We grew up eating gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish, Shrimp Étouffée

We would go fishing and crabbing and eat what we caught. I learned to clean fish and crabs and how to cook them. Mom and Dad both cooked and I learned from each. Louisiana Hot sauce was on every table. I knew what filé powder was and how to use it.I have made homemade root beer.

I was embarrassed as I got older how prejudice many of my friends were and was extremely happy that we moved to Texas after High School. I stay in touch with many of my relatives and classmates that still live there and I am proud that the people of Louisiana are growing up. Most industry has left the city and been replaced with gambling; horse tracks and casinos.

I am somewhat puzzled by the results of two recent polls. 5 Happiest Cities to Live in US and 10 Most Miserable Cities to Live In America. Shreveport made both lists. Number 3 happiest and number 8 most miserable.